SmokeLong Quarterly
SmokeLong Quarterly is open for submissions for their first ever Flash Fiction competition. Stories must be original works and not have been previously published anywhere online or in print, including personal blogs.Closes: May 20, 2018Word limit: under 1000 wordsPrize:Prize: $1500, automatic nomination for The Best Small Fictions series, the Pushcart Prize, Best of the Net, and other awards, publication in our 15th-anniversary Issue in June, and their undying love and devotion. At least 14 runners-up will also be published in the June 2018 contest issue–and each of the finalists will receive $15.Entry fees: February 5 – April 29 entries — $10, up to 2 stories
April 30 – May 20 entries — $13, up to 2 stories

Boroondara Literary AwardsThis open short story award is available to all Australian residents.Opens: Monday 7 May
Closes: Friday 31 August 2018Word limit: 1500-3000 wordsPrize: First: $1500 Second: $1000 Third: $500

Furious Fiction
Presented by the Australian Writers’ Centre (us!), this is a fun, fast and FREE short story challenge to flex your creative writing muscles each month. Everyone 17 years and over, anywhere in the world is invited to take part – for a seriously awesome cash prize.Opens: 5pm (Sydney/Melbourne time) on the first Friday of the monthCloses: 55 hours later (midnight, Sunday)Word limit: 500 wordsPrize: AUD$500 cash to the winning story every single month
Join the Furious Fiction Fan Club to be notified as soon as the next challenge goes live.

Please find a synopsis and attached flyers of Eastwood Hills FAW Literary Competition 2018 for circulation to you members.

EASTWOOD/HILLS FELLOWSHIP OF AUSTRALIAN WRITERS

LITERARY COMPETITION 2018

Closing Date: 15th May, 2018 (entries post marked on or before this date).

All categories Open Theme

Category 1: Short Story
Max 3,000 words. First Prize $250, Second Prize $100

Sisters in Crime books open to Self Publishing Authors

Sisters in Crime Australia’s 18th Davitt Awards for the best crime and mystery books by Australian women are now open. Publishers have until Friday 20 April to enter. For the first time, self-published books are eligible to enter.

Six Davitt Awards will be presented at a gala dinner in Melbourne, probably in late August or early September: Best Adult Novel; Best Young Adult Novel; Best Children’s Novel; Best Non-fiction Book; Best Debut Book (any category); and Readers’ Choice (as voted the 500+ members of Sisters in Crime Australia).

“The number of entries this year is expected to eclipse the 2017 record of 99 books which represented a 14-fold increase from the Davitts’ first presentation in 2001. Over 80 books are already in contention,” Horwood said.

“What’s even more remarkable is the surge in quality. Australian women’s writing is meeting with global acclaim. Last year, Liane Moriarty, the 2015 best adult novel winner, was twice invited onto the stage by Nicole Kidman when she won major acting awards for the TV series based on Big Little Lies (Pan Macmillan Collins Australia). Reese Witherspoon, who co-produced and co-starred in the series with Kidman, is filming The Dry (Harper Collins Australia), Jane Harper’s novel which won two Davitts last year –for best adult novel and readers’ choice.”

Horwood said that Australian women’s crime books are also being translated in record numbers, ensuring they reach a global readership.

“Not surprisingly, Sarah Schmidt’s 2017 novel, See What I have Done(Hachette Australia), based on the Lizzie Borden case, has been published the US and the UK but it is now also appearing in translation in the Netherlands, Germany, France, Italy, Poland and Turkey,” she said.

Horwood said that over the past 18 years the Davitts have played a crucial role in boosting the recognition of women’s crime writing.

“When the awards were first presented in 2001 at SheKilda, Sisters in Crime’s 10th anniversary convention, only seven books were in contention, although back then the awards did not then apply to non-fiction and not many women were writing children’s or young adult fiction,” she said.

“The Davitts have played a crucial role in encouraging Australian publishers to take a punt on crime books produced by women locally, instead of just importing the latest blockbusters from overseas. Publishers’ support has made a huge difference, not just to authors, but to readers who crave local crime stories that speak to their lives and expose the undercurrents in Australian society.

“And what’s also notable is the dramatic increase in YA and children’s crime novels which reflects the appeal of the genre across all age groups. Enid Blyton has a lot to answer for.”

Horwood said that Sisters in Crime had decided to open the competition to self-published books.

“A lot of good crime writing can be found in self-published books. Self-published books can’t simply be dismissed any more as more vanity publishing. One book in contention was knocked back by the author’s usual publisher as they felt it had too much about sex and drugs to fit neatly into the YA category,” Horwood said.

The Davitts, named after Ellen Davitt, the author of Australia’s first mystery novel, Force and Fraud, in 1865, cost publishers nothing to enter. A long list will be published in May, a shortlist in July.

The awards are handsome carved polished wooded trophies featuring the front cover of the winning novel under perspex. No prize money is attached.

Sisters in Crime Australia was set up 27 years ago, has chapters in different states and holds regular events in Melbourne dissecting crime fiction on the page and screen. It also hosts a popular annual short-story competition, the Scarlet Stiletto Awards.

To enter the Davitts, publishers should contact Carmel Shute, Sisters in Crime, National Co-convenor asap onadmin@sistersincrime.org,auand get books to the judges before 20 April. Enquiries: 0412 569 356

If you are champing at the bit to write a narrative with more clichés than you can poke a stick at and if you can create similes that are so excruciatingly erroneous they’ll make everyone LOL this competition is for you!

Poetry

Entries for the 2018 Bruce Dawe National Poetry Prize are closing soon!

As part of the creative writing community, we would truly appreciate your help spreading the word about this prize to your members, friends, family and other networks.

There is still a chance to win $2500 in the 2018 Bruce Dawe National Poetry Prize, generously endowed by Emeritus Professor Bruce Dawe AO. We want to see the inspiration, passion and creativity of Australian poets.

The Bruce Dawe National Poetry Prize

Don’t want to miss out on entering in 2018?

As an Australian poet, your contribution shapes our Australian culture. None believed this more so than Emeritus Professor Bruce Dawe AO, one of Australia’s most acclaimed contemporary poets. Professor Dawe believed that universities should support the study of Literature and promote the Arts in Australian society. His decision to sponsor this prominent Literary Prize is ongoing, living proof of his conviction. This annual $2500 prize has been generously endowed by Emeritus Professor Dawe to celebrate Australian poetry.

Thank you to everyone for entering in 2017, and a special congratulations to Tim Collins who is the 2017 Bruce Dawe National Poetry Prize winner for his entry ‘Stage Whispers’.

Want to know more?

Annual W B Yeats Poetry Prize for Australia under the auspices of The W B Yeats Society of Victoria Inc.

Annual W B Yeats Poetry Prize for Australia under the auspices of The W B Yeats Society of Victoria Inc.

Now accepting entries for the

2017 Yeats Prize.

Closing date March 31 2018

First Prize AU $500. 00

Award Certificate

Second Prize AU $75. 00

Third Prize $75. 00

Award Certificates

Commendation Certificates

RULES

NOT previously published

My central area of interest in poetry in English, especially contemporary and modern poetry. Other areas of expertise include nineteenth-, twentieth-century and contemporary American literature; twentieth-century and contemporary Australian literature; twentieth-century and contemporary Canadian literature. – See more at: http://corner.acu.edu.au/research_supervision/framework/browse.php?srperid=126#sthash.0rp8dO1W.dpuf